Maria da Graça Carvalho announced that the Government will start the first auction of offshore wind farms, with Luxembourg as an external investor co-financing the project.
The Minister of Environment and Energy stated this Monday that the Government already has “all the conditions” to start the first auction of offshore wind farms, and added that Luxembourg has “every interest” in financing the project.
“Now we have all the conditions. We have an external investor. We have a report on how much it costs.. We have the maritime area report on the different zones and the mapping of the zones. Now we have to choose the first area. At the end of the year we should start with the first auction because we intend to have two gigawatts until 2030,” said Maria da Graça Carvalho, when asked about the launch of the auction of offshore wind farms.
The minister spoke to journalists in Ponta Delgada on the sidelines of the presentation of the investments planned in Sustainable 2030 for the Azores.
Maria da Graça Carvalho highlighted that the Government was “waiting for a report from a working group on the economic and financial part” of that project, which was “delivered a few days ago.”
“I have been in contact with the Minister of Economy of Luxembourg who has every intention of co-financing part of this project for us”he added.
The minister highlighted that the “project is very innovative”, but admitted that it is an “expensive investment” to justify the presence of external investors.
“So that the project is not a burden for consumers or taxpayers, it will be very important to have external investment.”. “Luxembourg is very interested in continuing and investing in this project,” he reinforced.
On June 21, the General Directorate of Natural Resources, Security and Maritime Services (DGRM) said it had no doubt that the offshore wind energy auction will be launched this year, once the new maritime areas are defined and spatialized.
The Minister of Environment and Energy guaranteed, at the end of May, that the auction that was suspended due to the political change in the country will continue, but without compromising dates and with a power to be assigned less than the two megawatts (MW) planned by the previous Government.
On 17 July, the Secretary of State for Fisheries stated that the government intends to address fishermen’s concerns about the installation of new offshore wind farms, ensuring that the new projects will be “aligned with fisheries”.
Source: Observadora
